LOCATION: TOMAKOMAI, SAPPORO
MOOD: ON THE MOVE
LISTENING TO: FIVE FOR FIGHTING – A HUNDRED YEARS TO LIVE
THE BOY FROM DOWN SOUTH GOES NORTH:
After a restful night's sleep in my capsule I woke to find myself approaching the port city of Tomakomai in Hokkaido. This was my first sight of the northern island, which in turn was the last of Japan's four main islands. My stop in Tomakomai was brief as my main destination was the island's capital, Sapporo. I took a bus from the ferry that took me through the centre of Tomakomai and onto the highway, right through to Sapporo Central station.
Not that it really has anything to do with anything, but I thought the slogan on this packet of tissues was pretty humorous. Click to enlarge.
All hands on deck.
First glimpses of Tomakomai.
The scenery was a little different to what I had become accustomed to over the past few months. Tomakomai is a port city and thus heavily industrialised, with smoke stacks and warehouses dominating the skyline. In addition to this the sky was overcast and the scenery bleak, which made from a somewhat jolting change from the sunny, breezy atmosphere of southern Japan.
Downtown Tomakomai. Very much like any other small city in Japan.
Just another day in sleepy suburbia.
Once we got out onto the highway the concrete jungle melted away to reveal a densely forested landscape that stretched as far as the eye could see. The trees were the sort better suited to cooler climates: tall, straight and unassuming. For some reason the whole scene seemed very neat and planned out; I'm not sure whether the current forests were the result of structured replanting efforts. All in all the whole landscape had a rustic, frontier feel to it befitting Hokkaido's status as the last part of Japan to be colonised. I'm guessing that this is sort of what it feels like for Americans when they visit Alaska.
I think the denseness of Hokkaido's forests is what sets them apart. You literally could not fit another tree into this picture.
Of course there were flat bits as well. Seeing sheep might have reminded me of back home, but the grass was far too green for that.
Taking the high road. Literally.
The outskirts of Sapporo.
AFTER HOURS CUSTOMER:
The ferry had arrived at the port in Tomakomai fairly late in the morning, and I then had to wait around an hour for the bus. The trip itself was a few hours too, meaning that I arrived in Sapporo mid-afternoon. After grabbing a quick snack at a local McDonalds I immediately set off for my hostel to dump my stuff and get on the sightseeing trail.
Even after having travelled all over Japan by train, I was still impressed by Sapporo Central station (where the bus dropped me off).
Sapporo may be the most remote of Japan's major cities, but it is just as imposing a metropolis as any of the others (apart from Tokyo of course, which is in its own league).
My hostel (recommended by Henry) was in the nightlife district of Sapporo, Susukino. Even in the daylight, stripped of its neon glamour, it still made an immediate impact. My hostel was around 15 minutes from the station by foot, tucked away in one of the many winding alleys that surround the main strip. It was a classic minshuku, a Japanese style bed and breakfast run by a live-in owner and his mother. My room was a fairly spacious unit with tatami mats covering the floor and futons to sleep on, which made for a pleasant change from bunk beds and carpet.
Just outside the subway stop in Susukino.
What I ended up getting from the McDonalds in Susukino. It's one of those ideas that's better in the imagining than in the realisation.
My room. This shot was actually taken on my last day in Japan, by which point I had well and truly made the room mine.
At this point it was nearing 4 in the afternoon so I knew I had to act quickly if I was going to salvage anything from the day. Luckily for me a number of the main sights are bunched around central Sapporo, the section between Susukino and Sapporo Central station.
My first port of call was the Old Governor's Mansion near Odori station. This colonial-era red brick building was the headquarters for the Japanese Government in Hokkaido while it was overseeing the development of the new territory (or, as some would call it the destruction of the native Ainu culture). Nowadays it's been converted into a museum chronicling the history of modern Hokkaido. It has an immaculately kept garden in front of it which I took several photos of, but I held off going inside to view the museum as it was forecast to rain over the next few days so I wanted to take in as many outdoor sights as possible.
The Governor's Mansion.
The Mansion is in the working heart of the city and I can imagine white collar types coming out here for their lunch breaks.
At that point in the afternoon however, there were only tourists and this old lady who was intent on attracting as many of the local birds as possible with her bag of seeds.
I'm not a huge fan of rain, but the place did look amazing after the showers.
It also gave me an excuse to fiddle around with the macro settings on my camera.
Just down the road from the Governor's Mansion is the Hokkaido Botanical Gardens, the Shokubutsuen (literally 'botanical garden'). The sprawling estate also doubles as a research laboratory for the nearby Hokkaido University. By the time I arrived the gates had already closed for the day, but the size of the compound made a compelling case for me to pay another visit.
I got myself a drink and headed down to Odori Park, the garden boulevard that cuts through the centre of the city. It makes for a pleasant stroll as you'll pass by couples out for a walk, school kids hanging out after school, young families and performers practicing in the open air. I passed by a few dance troupes, an acting class and even a few B-Boys with an old school JVC boombox. Hip hop lives! In Japan.
Odori Park.
A tribute to the woodland creatures that were no doubt cleared out to make way for the city.
Parks and amateur theatre are a solid fit anywhere in the world.
There are of course also the usual gardens and fountains, but the skyline of the park is dominated by the Sapporo TV Tower, which sets at the end of the boulevard. Modeled on the Eiffel Tower it makes for a handy point of reference and giant time piece, not to mention a huge tourist trap. I avoided going up when I saw the crowds and the price. Besides, there were better places to get aerial shots of Sapporo.
Why pay to go up the tower when you can just sit and admire it with your girlfriend? The couple on the bench apparently agreed with me.
Every park has its fountains, but this one is special. Take a closer look.
From the TV Tower I headed to the other iconic tourist attraction of Sapporo: the Clock Tower. This old weatherboard structure has become a fixture on Hokkaido tourist routes and has become a de facto emblem of the city with its image being used to flog everything from cars to crackers. The actual structure itself isn't that impressive, and apparently I'm not alone in being underwhelmed: it was recently voted the third most disappointing tourist sight in Japan in a nation-wide poll. Sure it has a quaint history of supposedly never missing a tolling for over a century but I didn't really mind that I had arrived too late to actually go inside.
I will never understand why certain places become tourist icons.
Large parts of Sapporo are under repairs at the moment. I'm not sure whether it's part of a coordinated public works program, or if the city is just in need of a facelift.
From the Clock Tower I headed back to Odori Park and descended into the underground shopping mall that led back to Susukino subway station. There are a number of underground shopping strips in Hokkaido, but the one that I walked down (the humorously named 'Pole Town') was a seemingly never-ending corridor lined with a variety of stores from high end boutiques to small independent clothes shops to crepe stalls. It did seem like you needed to know where you were going as the steady stream of pedestrians and the lack of benches meant there wasn't really anywhere to stop.
I'm used to spending money at 'Pole Town', but usually it's in the form of single dollar bills.
FASHIONABLY EARLY:
After getting back to the hostel and having a bit of a rest I ate dinner at the local Lotteria (a Japanese hamburger chain) and pondered what to do next. My initial plan had been to take the cable car to outskirts of Sapporo and climb the ropebridge at Moiwa, which was said to have exceptional views of Sapporo city from its peak. However by that point it was starting to drizzle and the rain was picking up, and given my previous experience in Tokyo I wasn't about to be caught out in a storm in the middle of nowhere.
That being the case, I decided that since I was smack bang in the middle of Sapporo's night life district I'd try out a couple of bars to get a feel for the place. I'd been out drinking a couple of times before in Japan, but this was the first time that I was going out by myself. After wandering around the streets for a while taking in the atmosphere of drunken businessmen and their scantily clad consorts for the night I eventually settled on a darts bar. I figured at least I would be able to play some darts if I couldn't strike up a conversation.
Susukino at night is a blur of yakuza, titty bars and drunk businessmen. I think I understand why my hotel was so cheap now.
This turned out to be a good choice given that the bar was pretty much empty and I ended up playing darts with the bartender for about half an hour. Most bars in Japan don't have regular cork dartboards – nothing is ever that simple in Japan. Instead they have elaborate electronic dart boards with flashing screens and blaring sounds, which, given the paucity of customers, filled most of the crampt little establishment. I tried a couple of the different dart games they had and asked the bartender if he had any local brews, but he said he only had Carlsberg. Sapporo has a reputation for being a big beer city (after all, it has a major beer named after it), so this was a little unbelievable. I finished up my Carlsberg, cleared my bill and asked him whether he could point me to a place that could serve me a Japanese beer.
After a few phone calls he ended up showing me to another hall-in-the-wall establishment run by a Chinese proprietor. For some inexplicable reason they also didn't have Sapporo beer, so I settled for an Asahi. I struck up a conversation with the fresh-faced 21 year old bartender who had joined up straight after high school and was being shown the ropes by the 30 something proprietor. He told me that he didn't think he had the courage to travel alone overseas, and I almost felt like telling him that I didn't think I had the courage to hold down a bar by myself. The proprietor himself had apparently ended up in Japan via the university route, and had picked up the language only after arriving. Of course that had been 13 years ago, so he was fully fluent by now. He was nice enough to wave the 2000 yen cover charge and give me some advice about avoiding overly-enthusiastic hookers.
The young bartender who was holding down the fort at the second place I went to.
By that point I was pretty tired and given that my wallet had taken a beating after only two bars and a couple of drinks I decided to retire for the night. I still had to nurse my finances through the next couple of days.
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